IMC 2023: Sessions

Nearly all historians of the Middle Ages work with manuscripts. However, only recently have they started to ask what the material artefacts themselves reveal about the society they were written in. Based on different manuscripts from the late medieval Holy Roman Empire the session will discuss what insights can be gained from taking the production process and the manuscripts into account. In particular, we focus on the mobility of manuscripts – entangling them in their respective society: how did the mobility of people and materials shape manuscripts, and how did the mobility of the manuscripts create and sustain networks of people and communities?

The minutes of the Hanse diets are a prime example for mobile manuscripts. They were copied several times and sent to the various cities participating in the league of towns, thus structuring the cooperation between towns in Northern Europe. Likewise, individual interaction of craftsmen could be supported by manuscripts. While it is common knowledge that craftsmen travelled temporarily or even permanently, scholarship could also show that manuscripts accompanied them on these journeys and supported their professional exchange. Last but not least, colour- and ink-compositions of manuscripts, a related market and trade can be addressed with new non-invasive chemical methods using illuminated charters and manuscripts from the beginning of the 16th century as case study.